Hathaway, who revealed she wasn't wearing underwear at the event, spoke about the incident while during an interview with Matt Lauer on Today on Wednesday (December 12).

"It was obviously an unfortunate incident," she stressed. "It kind of made me sad on two accounts. One was that I was very sad that we live in an age when someone takes a picture of another person in a vulnerable moment and rather than delete it, and do the decent thing, sells it."

The star went on to say: "I'm sorry that we live in a culture that commodifies sexuality of unwilling participants, which brings us back to Les Mis, that's what my character is, she is someone who is forced to sell sex to benefit her child because she has nothing and there's no social safety net."

Hathaway was joined at New York's Les Misérables event on Monday by co-stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Eddie Redmayne and Sacha Baron Cohen.

She even walked the red carpet after the wardrobe malfunction in bondage-style Tom Ford heels.

Les Misérables opens in the US on Christmas Day and in the UK on January 11.